500 Hello from Australia

[Piccolo Nero e Bella]

Good news .. the 1.4 S 500c is no longer a dream, it's a reality.

I'm just waiting for the paperwork and pre-delivery to be done and she'll be mine .. I'm hoping Friday at the latest.

As I mentioned in a previous post I wasn't too fussy about colour, and 3 were in contention at different dealers. However the dealer with the black / black won out, what with closest location and better deal (getting fitted carpets / 16" wheels and the tradein price I wanted), so that's what I'm getting.

Never had a black colour car before though .. are these hard to keep clean?

Black is a right, royal PITA to keep clean and, as JR says, shows every scratch and swirl. I've made every effort to treat mine with kid gloves but it's still like that. If I wash it on a sunny day (not hot, just sunny) the first side is dry and watermarked before I can get back to it to dry it off. Times like these I envy the partner's solid white!

On the other hand the combination of black and chrome really looks smart and stands out and that makes it all worthwhile. The white C with its red roof is often called 'cute' but I like to think my black one has a more 'grumpy' mien.

Keep it under cover as much as you can, clean bird poo off immediately, park it as far away from other cars as possible (except other 500's) and avoid looking at it in direct sunlight... Otherwise, enjoy.

 

[UFI]

I don't know guys, my 10 year old black Wrangler still looks like new apparently. Considering the amount of off road it does I take that as a complement. Maintaining a black 500 should be easy. It did have ordinary paint protection applied new and renewed recently. I'd consider the ceramic type which I just ordered a kit of for the new Renault, not really sure about it but it should help keep the swirls at bay on a dark car. Apparently it will make buffing out deeper scratches more difficult.

 

[44sunsets]

Yup, some form of paint protection/sealant on a black car is just about mandatory. Makes cleaning much easier -- and by cleaning I mean pressure washer and 2 or 3-bucket wash of course

 

[500man]

The dealer had my car ready just after 10am, so have spent the day driving around and getting used to how little Caesar drives .. OMG, I've named my car *face palm*

The dualogic gear box "BUZZED" me a few times, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. :slayer:

And hey, the auto function isn't that bad .. once you learn the limitations (foibles) of the system.

 

[kanewilsonjr]

Hi there, Welcome to Fiat Forums !

 

[Club500italia]

G'day mate get the roof down.

 

[Bella500]

Thanks for the welcome.

Yes, I noticed that there were quite a few members from OZ on here. Still don't notice many 500's on the road over here, but these cars are obviously popular amongst the people with some taste.

I'm not going to go the "order and wait" path with this car. I went through that a few time before, and the wait time of almost 6 months in both cases nearly killed me. This time I'm going to take my chances on what will be in stock when I'm ready to buy. I'm pretty open to the colours, etc which Fiat are offereing over here, so hoping I should find something that grabs me. The only thing I def want is the car will have to be 500c .. figured it's about time I owned a cabriolet.

We are in Melbourne and ordered a car, a 500C Lounge. After two different ones that were not what we ordered, we did a deal on the second one with much apologises from FIAT and the dealer. So, if you can find a car that you like you should buy it. There are quite a number of new 2013 cars still around with the old dash and you can negotiate a great price, haggle hard, very hard.